Schools ramp up coronavirus response

Three more Latah County school districts have announced they will close temporarily to help limit the local spread of the new coronavirus.

Citing increasingly grave recommendations from the state, local health authorities and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Potlatch, Kendrick and Genesee school districts have announced they will close until at least April 6.

“We’re transitioning to distance learning or online learning, depending on the grade level, beginning next week,” Kendrick Superintendent Steve Kirkland said. He said the district will work to ensure all students, including those who lack internet or a computer at home will have access to instruction. “Many of the things that our teachers are going to be doing are things that we already had in place to supplement regular instruction in the building, so we’re not necessarily introducing a lot of new things with this.”

Both Potlatch and Kendrick districts will have spring break during the second week of the closure, superintendents said. Genesee’s spring break starts next week.

Potlatch Superintendent Jeff Cirka said in addition to guidance from various state and federal agencies, his district was also compelled to take some time off because of a drop in attendance. He said the district started the week with around 80 percent attendance in its schools, and has since dropped below 70 percent, signaling to administrators that school should be halted temporarily. Cirka said Potlatch instructors will develop distance learning strategies during the closure to be deployed if the district determines it is necessary to extend the closure beyond April 6.

“It was decided that we would use (today) and the rest of next week to prepare, get plans in place, get all of our materials that we’re going to look at for alternative delivery,” Cirka said, noting district leaders plan to reassess the situation during the second week. “If at that time, closure needs to continue or let’s say the Governor Little puts down a state mandate that says schools will be closed for X amount of time, we’ll have those protocols in place.”

Genesee Superintendent Wendy Moore said her district has committed to a similar strategy.

“I have teachers coming in the week of March 30 through the third (April 3)and they will be working on putting lesson plans together and getting prepared if we have to go that direction,” Moore said. “But if we do not have to go that direction, then the materials they’ve been working on can be used in the regular classroom setting.”

All school districts said they intend to offer “grab-and-go” meals to students during closures. Kirkland said Kendrick schools will set up a couple of different sites for students to come by and pick up both breakfast and lunch in a single trip starting sometime next week. Cirka said meals in Potlatch will be offered at one of five dropoff locations in town and in the surrounding communities starting either Tuesday or Wednesday.

“We’re going to have five sites where they can go to for pickup — one in Harvard, one in Princeton, one above the substation up U.S. 95 and then one at the high school and one at the elementary,” Cirka said.

Moore said Genesee schools are developing a grab-and-go meal plan as well, which will be offered after April 6, assuming the district elects to extend the closure.

Moore said she and other districts didn’t close earlier in the week because there were no locally confirmed cases of coronavirus but as the week progressed it became apparent that it is only a matter of time until it reaches communities in the region.

“We do anticipate that we will soon see cases in Latah and Nez Perce county,” Moore said. “We thought having spring break and the week after gives us adequate time to prepare so when we do roll out that we do an efficient job of it.”

Scott Jackson can be reached at (208) 883-4636, or by email to sjackson@dnews.com.